City police officers conducting a Checkstop in an industrial area in southeast Calgary late Thursday thought they were dealing with an impaired driver as his vehicle barrelled toward a police cruiser with no indications of stopping.

Despite officers frantically waving in an attempt to stop the motorist, his car continued along in the area of 130th Avenue and 52nd Street S.E. just before midnight, until it crashed into the back of the black Dodge Charger — which had its emergency lights flashing — deploying the airbags in the man’s car.

Later, after the driver had been extricated with minor injuries, he allegedly admitted he’d been distracted behind the wheel, said Staff Sgt. Paul Stacey of the Calgary Police Service’s traffic section.

“He said he was adjusting the stations on his radio, and he was not looking at the road,” Stacey said, adding charges are pending. “Here we have a police car lit up like a Christmas tree and it still gets drilled. It was lucky there was no one in that police car at the time.”

Stacey said the incident highlights the dangers of driving while distracted, adding it can have the same effects and consequences as driving while impaired.

And with recent numbers showing that the number of distracted-driving tickets issued have been rising since legislation came into effect in September 2011, Stacey hopes demerits for distracted driving — as well as a new social media campaign — will help bring those numbers down.

In 2011, police issued 1,039 tickets, Stacey said. In 2012, during the first full year of enforcement, police handed out 6,558 tickets. That number jumped to 7,191 in 2013, 8,200 in 2014, and to its all-time high of 8,478 in 2015.

Meanwhile, distracted-driving numbers from the province also show an upward trend. In 2011-12, there were 8,345 distracted driving convictions. That number jumped to 25,958 in 2012-13, remained steady at 25,913 in 2013-14, then up again to 27,417 in 2014-15.

In total, 87,633 tickets have been issued provincewide since the legislation came into effect.

On Monday, Alberta Transportation Minister Brian Mason is expected to address the media in Edmonton to discuss the province’s campaign to eliminate distracted driving on Alberta’s roads and highways, as February is distracted-driving awareness month according to the Alberta Traffic Safety calendar, a department spokeswoman said.

Stacey said he hopes stiffer penalties, which took effect Jan. 1, will start driving those numbers down. Since then, drivers caught violating the provincial distracted driving law by texting, using a hand-held device, grooming or fiddling with GPS are hit with three demerit points.

He added he hopes the #CrotchesKill social media campaign, encouraging drivers to take a selfie while holding a pledge not to drive distracted, will also make a difference.

The campaign was borrowed from Alberta Transportation and gets its name from a common bad habit of drivers, who keep their cellphones in their laps while driving and occasionally glance down to read their messages or surreptitiously make phone calls.

So far, police Chief Roger Chaffin, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Marianne Ryan, Mayor Naheed Nenshi, former NHL star Sheldon Kennedy, country music star George Canyon and singer Jann Arden, to name a few, have made the pledge online.

Stacey said the social media campaign has “caught on like wildfire,” reached millions of people and is still going strong.

Jeff Kasbrick, vice-president of government and stakeholder relations with the AMA, said he, too, is hopeful the introduction of demerits will help curb the number of distracted-driving violations in the province, which he calls one of the most critical traffic safety issues of our time.

“Research tells us that through a combination of a regulatory structure we now have along with ongoing public awareness and really committed consistent enforcement, that’s when we begin to see an actual sustained change in driving behaviour,” Kasbrick said.

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